To me, Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is, in large part, a cautionary tale about the dangers of apathy. It is difficult to see the Republic of Gilead as anything but a totalitarian regime, with only the interests of the very few at heart. Women are entirely subservient to men. The men they service are limited to the aging and supposedly infertile commanders, leaving the majority of men with very little contact with women. Basically, the majority of the population is disenfranchised.

Neuromancer portrays a world in which there is trend towards the perfection of function. This is an ambiguous term, but I will try to make its meaning more explicit through context. While the book displays the characteristic diversity of culture, which is characteristic of cyberpunk, there are a few essential universals, which make this trend obvious. The matrix is the most prominent universal, as it is present almost all the through the story. Case nearly always has access to the matrix. Regardless of his location, his job is still the same, and he is still just as effective at it.

I found Starship Troopers to be a very disturbing read. The story effectively chronicles Rico’s assimilation into the Mobile Infantry. It’s a story of personal development, however, for such a story to be compelling, the protagonist needs to be a character for which the reader can have some pathos. For someone like me, who doesn’t believe in the necessity for a powerful military, relating to someone who chose to fight might be difficult. However, Starship Troopers manages a wider appeal by presenting social context for the protagonist’s actions.

Here is my blog to test my account.